Tue, 27 Feb 2018 05:30:50 -0800WeeblyFri, 07 Nov 2014 12:14:11 GMThttp://www.azartgal.com/blog/state-conferenceToday I am presenting at the State Conference for Art Educators. It's 5 am and I am in a Starbuck's because my WI FI is down AND.... my printer is down. Murphy's Law is in full effect here! BUT I am so excited to be near so many creative people today! Presenting how to incorporate more clay in your day, and Where the Wild Things are mixed media hands on workshop!

As many of you know, if you are creative, or "Artsy Fartsy" you get nominteered to do a lot. "Oh could you sketch this for the cafeteria, or can you make a giant tree, oh I am painting a pumpkin with my kids at home, can I borrow some paint from you school supply?" One of these was, "Jessica is creative, she should do a mural"... and that's how it started. This mural was started by my student teacher who left abruptly and was passed onto me. This was the bane of my existence for quite some time. When I finally had pride in it, I messed it up! SO I have decided to share what I have learned after tears and freakouts.

Above is what happens when you DO NOT use a foam roller to apply the laquer finish. I had to repaint... THE ENTIRE PROJECT OVER. See all that cloudiness above? BAD Bad bad news.Never, ever get rid of an opaque projector. Those gems saved my life.Do tie it into a day of service so students can help, and make other cool art at school a long the way.Do ask for help... your friends and family like your more than you think. Bless them.

]]>Fri, 10 Oct 2014 03:15:16 GMThttp://www.azartgal.com/blog/steamishLast year my school was granted the opportunity to be apart of an innovation team. I am the coordinator for our STEAM program on campus. To say it has been easy getting people on board, the technology and funding to make it all come together would be a total lie, but this year we have our first full fledged STEAM program, and we have come a long as a group together. Of course we are in the beginning stages, so I would like to share some STEAMish this I am doing in my room. Sometimes I have to have a heart to heart with myself and not be so hard, that there really a lot of cool things going on in my room and that I will never be perfect.

Students are using laptops in every class on an almost daily basis

Successful use of smartphones in my classroom

Students logging into my website to call "Dibs" on mask choices using Google forms

Coordinated with a 1st grade teacher to do game hacks by my students

Video conferencing between the two classes.

Students are using genetics, heredity, and adaptation to create their paper mache Geneticon, and draw the family tree showing where the traits came from.

Students will then be creating a game based off of genetics, heredity, adaptation and working closely with science for accuracy.

Oh and by the way, sorry I have been gone for a while, it has been a whirl wind of a year so far, but I have some cool projects to share!

My friend is a part of this craft group that I rarely get to go to but when I saw this awesome project I had to have a stay at home- craft- date night.

Here's what You need

Shoes (Flats or canvas ones like these.. with lots of flat areas)

Old Comic Books

Exterior Modge Podge

Varnish (At the very end to not let it stay sticky)

Time Be patient there is some waiting in between coats of modge podge.

Black Paint (optional) I outlined mine. Fabric pens may work better.

]]>Sun, 20 Jul 2014 20:10:20 GMThttp://www.azartgal.com/blog/tatortot-casseroleThis is my go to comfort food which ties all things delicious. What I love most about this recipe is that I can make it ahead, freeze it, then defrost while I am at work and its just a matter of heating it up and adding some sprinkle cheese. We were on vacation for a few days last week and I knew when we got home we would want something home-cooked. I put the frozen meal in the fridge to slowly defrost. When we got home it was ready to go!

There are o many amazing ways you can do this, but here is how we do it:

Ingredients:

1-1.25 lb of Ground beef or Turkey (we use turkey)

1 Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 Can of Cream of Chicken Soup

1 Bag of Frozen Tator Tots

2 Green Onions

1 cup (or more if you would like) of Casserole/Fiesta Sprinkle Cheese

Steps:1. Brown ground meat with preferred seasonings2. Spray a 11x7 dish with non- stick spray (or we make two small square (8x8) pans since there are only two of us)3. Combine soups and ground meat. Layer bottom of baking dish4. Preheat oven to 3505. Chop or cut one green onion to top of soup mixture6. Cover entire pan with Tator tots. I try to keep is pretty organized but that's up to you.7. Put in the oven for 25 Minutes8. Last 5 minutes top with cheese and last onions.

**If you decide to freeze it, do not top with cheese until you bake***

We enjoy it with salad. It should potentially serve up to 8.... 6 servings is more realistic in our house.

]]>Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:51:11 GMThttp://www.azartgal.com/blog/characters-relocated-second-time-aroundSo this is the second year I have done this project, and the results seem to show a little clearer understanding of what I was asking. Or maybe I had a little bit of a better understanding of what needed to be relayed to the students. You can see the original post here with instructions and my major mess ups in the lesson. Enjoy!

]]>Tue, 08 Jul 2014 13:35:13 GMThttp://www.azartgal.com/blog/mini-vacation This past week we were fortunate enough to be able to help my husbands grandmother in San Diego. I hadn't been since conference, and did get a chance to go to the beach and have dinner in little Italy. Although the majority of our time was spent assisting his grandmother, we did manage to go to my favorite beach.... DOG beach! It was a nice little break from the business of our lives.

]]>Tue, 08 Jul 2014 01:16:08 GMThttp://www.azartgal.com/blog/picking-lessons-for-the-yearDoes anyone else do this??! I like to mix it up every year, and have all my units basically done before the semester starts. Obviously there are more units then I have time for... which makes for hard decisions. So many choices!!! It doesn't help that I am behind schedule for creating units!! What do you do?! For some reason the list of lessons below doesn't show up until you click the heading... sorry!

Many of us, well at least for me teaching Junior High struggle with what to do the first few days. Students are switching in and out of classes, orientation is occurring, different bell schedules for the first few days,so on and so forth. I wasn't planning to use this project this year because I wanted to take Janine Campbell's idea of 'Clay on the First Day' but considering my classroom is under serious construction I would bring this oldie but goody back. I found this lesson on pinterest, but I believe this is the source here.

Below is the worksheet I use to get them to start brainstorming. When they are all done we display them in the office almost like a quilt. They come out really nice and it is nice to get to know the students, their interests, and a little bit about their skill level.

And lastly, a little room update:

Looks scary, I know. I did bake some cookies and brownies for the contractor and he assures me at least one of my classroom will be ready by July 31st. We report back July 31st. I will be a crazy person but so happy they are working hard. Photos courtesy of my principal. There are actually several more ha ha.

I love my friends dearly, but when they make the comment of "your so lucky, you get summers off!" I want to cringe, and maybe sometimes punch them. At one time this could have been the case, maybe with the "good ol' days" I hear so much about in education, but i missed the memo and was never apart of that...EVER. I look forward to my summers not because of the time off, but the time away from kids so I can focus on beefing up my curriculum, attending conferences, and meeting with people that share the passion for teaching to be that breath of fresh air that so many of us need at the end of the year.

My end of the year ended in me packing my entire classroom for some serious construction that is going to occur. They will be digging trenches, tearing out walls, all new pipes (why they thought glass pipes was good to begin with is beyond me) and putting in flooring and counter tops. This is bittersweet. Of course it is not going as planned and I will not have my room at the beginning of the year, BUT I get new flooring and stainless steel sinks/counter tops. So I am diving into my curriculum planing my first units with little materials. I am also so excited for all of the technology I am implementing in my STEAM cohorts! Below is some pictures of my packed room, and a quote I am learning to live by this summer. I have some great lessons to add in the next few weeks, I need to add some more clay and beginning of the year stuff!!